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Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - November 19, 2018.

More than 1,200 missing in the California wildfires. Also on the Monday rundown: A pair of reports on gun violence in the nation; and concerns that proposed changes to 'Green Card' rules favor the wealthy.

Daily Newscasts

Good News for Kids Suing Over Climate Change

Wheeler Visit to Oil and Gas Conference Highlights Methane Concerns

Is Climate Change Causing Tornado Alley to Shift East?

Florida’s Environmental Concerns Prompt New Institute to Inform Public

Flying Lead: The Unfriendly Skies of Massachusetts

PHOTO: About 167,000 piston-powered general aviation aircraft in the U.S. are using leaded aviation fuel. Courtesy: AOPA

October 1, 2012

Boston, MA - They got the lead out of automobile gas decades ago. But three-quarters of the nation's piston-driven airplanes – some 167-thousand – burn leaded aviation fuel, or “avgas,” making them the largest source of dangerous lead emissions from the transportation sector in the country. [Other major sources of lead in the air are ore and metals processing.] The effect of the lead spewed by the small planes and private planes that comprise what's called general aviation can be harmful, especially for children, according to Earthjustice attorney Marianne Engleman Lado. She's pursuing a case in a federal court in D-C aimed at getting the EPA to crack down.

"There are 20,000 airports around the country where lead is still used and studies have shown that people who live near these airports, their kids are more likely to have heightened blood lead levels."

Problem is, there's currently no alternative for leaded avgas which - according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association - has to be used in some engines. Otherwise they could fail, with safety consequences. The AOPA wants to find a solution, but says ultimately it's a decision for the Federal Aviation Administration, not just the EPA.

Rob Hackman of the AOPA says his group is working with the EPA and the FAA to establish a "realistic standard" to reduce lead emissions for general aviation aircraft.

"It's not just a matter of, 'We want fuel with a higher octane so we can go faster.' It's safety of flight, so that our engines do not detonate and prematurely tear themselves apart at critical phases of flight."

Lado says she wants the EPA to rule the lead in avgas a public health threat.

"Leaded air pollution clearly endangers public health. And the first step in this process is clearly at EPA's door, to recognize that and to initiate the regulatory process."

The AOPA's Hackman says, and others agree, that if you see a small plane flying overhead, there's probably no reason to cover your nose and mouth and run inside. Altitude and wind are thought to disperse the harmful emissions.

"So, unless you're standing right behind an aircraft engine with your nose right at the exhaust, you're talking about something that I think would be even difficult to measure from a bloodstream: that type of thing."

Nonetheless, there is great concern over populations near the nation's airports. Lado anticipates that the EPA eventually will issue an endangerment finding, followed by Clean Air Act regulation of lead in avgas.